POOF....

Poof – I woke up. It was over – or was it starting?

The classes have ended… graduation of sorts took place in a couple of minutes with a Certificate handed out to us. We exchanged emails with the idea that 5 very unlike people might stay in touch. Except for the email address – I was whisked back to my 18th year and the end of high school again. Now what?

Bouncing out of bed this AM meant – “Now what?” You have got a whole week until the next scheduled appointment… is it PJ Day? Yard work day? Or maybe nothing day?

They warned me that it could happen – a down day away from responsibility. A day that you might simply fiddle with emails until lunch time comes. A day when you crash… “That will never happen to me!” – I had thought to myself.

One time I listened to an older man that was self employed. He gave some great advice. He said, “I can’t do anything until I feel inspired. So before 9:00 AM every day I get myself ready and by 9:00 AM I AM INSPIRED whether I like to be or not.”

These were Great Words from a successful person.

Between Oct 22 and Oct 23 – something happened. I moved from one life to the next. I am responsible suddenly to make it happen. Funny thing is before that was true – but today it is more true. The buck suddenly stops here and responsibility floats in to grab the attention of my little mind. Funny enough – people immediately started telling me what I should or shouldn’t do with my time.

If you followed some of my posts to date – I moved from the position of Senior Pastor to the ranks of Unemployed. (To make everyone around me feel better we called it early retirement.) Then with an interesting turn of events I entered the world of possibilities – starting my own small business… “Wood Carving”. Some where before and during that time I am engaged in building a successful ministry to Leaders of our Province – at this point a kind of sideline – moving to the forefront steadily. It is like having two parallel jobs. Instead of being busy – I am now double busy.

My coach had told me about the possibility of waking up to a “day of funky”. She has said that you may wake up to a feeling of being overwhelmed and even crashing when you think of what you will have to do. Her advice is go back to bed… if it is bad… just don’t go back to bed every day. One of the simple solutions is to get up and get dressed…get moving… get your butt in gear.

One man that I spoke with last week shared his secret of working from home. He gets ready to go to work the same as he always has for the past 35 years. Then he heads out of the house to a local coffee shop. After coffee he heads back home and into the New Office – at home. He starts work the same as before. Somewhere between his eyes opening and entering his office that morning purpose sets in…new lists for that day take over.

In the old job and ministry – there were different bosses. There was a schedule to keep and people to meet. There was one clear boss…kind of… In the new one… there are different bosses… schedules to keep… and people to meet. Come to think of it not much has changed – except now I have a few more bosses. At last count I have ten today… and everyone has a new idea of what I should be doing right now. Each of today’s ten bosses have no idea what the other nine bosses are demanding.

Whoever thought working for yourself was easier is nuts! Whoever thought working from home is a breeze – has never done it.

But the freedom is cool. It is nice to not have to do it you don’t want to… It is nice to simply let up a bit and the old pressure has evaporated…no more heavy debt and heavy problems of church… just all the new ones that I didn’t have before.

Sure I will keep up “the romantic /idea feeling” that people have… I am retired early… kind of… it even makes me feel better.

Poof… I just woke up… it is really time to get my butt in gear. I gotta get to the office. People are counting on me. I have to meet with the 10 different bosses before lunch today… and then get some work done this afternoon.

See you tomorrow… gotta run.

Oh – Oh another one of the bosses just called. In fact this one is from Head Office of all Home Office Based Companies. He wants a PART OF MY LIFE BEFORE THE OTHER 10 BOSSES GET TO ME. His name is God. He just asked to me to, “Be still and know that I am God”. Okay… I will.

~ Murray Lincoln ~